


The toxicity of Shippers 2: Electric Boogaloo

by Kasuna_Kotonoha



Series: Fandom Rants [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Character Analysis, F/M, M/M, Rants, toxic shippers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 00:49:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30114618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kasuna_Kotonoha/pseuds/Kasuna_Kotonoha
Summary: A sequel to my previous discussion
Relationships: Midoriya Izuku/Todoroki Shouto, Todoroki Shouto/Yaoyorozu Momo
Series: Fandom Rants [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2216046
Comments: 16
Kudos: 12





	The toxicity of Shippers 2: Electric Boogaloo

Here we go again.

So, the other day, I made the mistake of delving into the comments of My Hero Academia ship opinion videos. And my god.

The war between TodoDeku and TodoMomo in particular is ridiculous, but the main place I’d like to start is comments this.

“But Deku is straight”

This, while not super frequent, still showed up enough as an argument against TodoDeku, and shipping Midoriya with male characters in general, to warrant discussion, and can actually be applied to a majority of fandoms and characters.

See, here’s the thing.

Midoriya isn’t straight. Now, before you go to the comments, let me explain.

He isn’t straight in the sense that, as far as I’m aware, nowhere has he explicitly stated that he’s straight. He, along with a majority of characters from all fandoms, don’t have a confirmed/explicitly stated sexuality.

However, plenty of characters do have implied sexualities, such as Nico di Angelo, a character many people say is gay, and even if it’s pretty heavily implied, it’s never been directly stated. (Though he’s better at it then most, Rick’s representation does have some problems, but that’s a discussion for another time) Both cases fall therefore into headcanon territory.

See, here’s the thing. Saying character x is straight/gay/etc is fine. I don’t have a problem with that. However, the problem comes when you use a sexuality headcanon to justify attacking people who do ship a particular pairing. It’s called a headcanon for a reason, and isn’t a valid reason to attack someone’s ships.

It’s a similar thing when it comes to headcanons for trans and non-binary characters. While we’re on the topic of BNHA, I don’t think Horikoshi necessarily intended this, but having a trans woman as a villain and a trans man as a hero has some...implications. (Media has a long history of queer coding its villains, especially Disney. The one that comes to mind for me first us Ursula, from The Little Mermaid, who was inspired by drag queens, but plenty of other villains, not just limited to Disney, have plenty of queer coding written into their design and character.)

And even if someone does have a directly stated sexuality, people may still headcanon something different, and that’s totally okay. Fandoms frequently like to ignore canon lore, pretend things never happened, for the heck of it, and that’s totally fine.

I think some people are a bit too focused on what ships, and lore in general, are considered canon, or at least likely to be so. Going back to the TodoDeku example, most people who ship it are aware that it’s most likely not going to be canon, and they’re okay with that. Canonicity isn’t going to stop someone from shipping something.

People like projecting onto characters, and that can extend to gender and sexuality headcanons. Whether it's because they see themselves in that character, relate to them or just vibe with them for some reason. People vibe with ships for similar reasons. Ships are kind of like food, actually. Some are more popular than other, and sometimes people like or don’t like something just because they do. People don’t need a reason to like or dislike a food, and the same can be said of ships. 

And when it comes down to it, the LGBTQ+ community is sorely lacking in good representation, and I feel like one of the reasons gay/lesbian pairing are so popular is because they aren’t often seen in media, and if it is, its usually a background relationship, or its been majorly sanitized to be palatable for mass consumption. Love Simon is actually a good example. (And speaking of, movie ratings are actually an interesting topic, because any romantic interaction between two people of the same sex can get a movie R rated.)

Sorry, went on a tangent there

TL;DR Deku has no canon sexuality, neither does Nico, having Gender/Sexuality headcanons is totally fine, people like to project, and the LGBTQ+ community needs better representation.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to comment your thoughts below, but I do expect you to be respectful. We are here for constructive dialogue, not arguments
> 
> Ask me if you want me to elaborate on any points, or add your own.


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